Baseball`s perfect game

The Korean film “Perfect Game” is about a 2-2 tie between two pro baseball teams. In May 1987, Lotte Giants pitcher Choi Dong-won threw 209 pitches and Haitai Tigers rival Sun Dong-yeol 232 to extend the game to the 15th inning, but the contest ended in a tie. A true perfect game, however, is when a pitcher ends a game without allowing a batter to safely step on first base. Over three decades, none of around 13,400 games in the Korean baseball league has produced one perfect game. In the U.S., pitchers have thrown 21 perfect games out of 390,000 games over 143 years. The incidence of the feat is just one in every 18,571 games. No pitcher has recorded a perfect game twice.

The second-highest feat for a pitcher is “no hits, no runs.” The Korean league has seen this 10 times. The first one was by Haitai pitcher Bang Su-won on May 5, 1984. He was a pinch hitter but set the record in his lone victory of the season. He went just 1-8 that year. “I didn’t intend to throw so long and just threw balls as the catcher wanted me to do,” Bang said. Jang Ho-yeon of the OB Bears had a similar performance with a fastball clocked at 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour fast ball in April 1988. This was much slower, however, than that of Kia Tigers active pitcher Yoon Seok-min, who can hurl at 140 kilometers (87 miles) per hour.

American pitchers who have perfect games to their credit include legends such as Cy Young, Sandy Koufax and Randy Johnson but also relatively unknowns as well. The Chicago Whitesox’s Charlie Robertson pitched a perfect game in April 1922 but had been unknown with a record of 49-80 over the past nine years. He had never had more wins than losses in a season. The Whitesox’s Philip Humber threw the 21st perfect game in the U.S. Major League on Sunday. He had been an unknown with no complete games to his credit, let alone a shutout.

In 2010, Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect game because of the first base umpire’s incorrect ruling. Certain players blow chances to pitch a perfect game due to an unexpected mistake while thinking about their record after eight innings or lack of one out because of an invisible mistake by a teammate. A perfect game might be all the more beautiful because it is a God-sent gift.

Editorial Writer Ha Tae-won (triplets@donga.com)